McCain said he hopes to have a full Senate confirmation vote on Nicholson sometime next week.
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Nicholson is set to replace the Afghanistan command from Gen. John Campbell, who will reportedly be retiring.
The U.S. now has about 9,800 troops in Afghanistan for counterterrorism activities and to train and advise Afghan security forces.
Last April, the Obama administration released a plan, “An Enduring Vision for Central Asia”, laying out provisions to deepen U.S. security and military ties to the region and build up “human rights” organizations. The transition will come following a brutal year for Afghan forces in which thousands of security forces were killed as the United States reduced its number of troops and the Afghan government for the first time was forced to provide security with little to no US air power.
Indeed, the war assessment that Nicholson offered during his nearly two-hour nomination hearing served as a sharp departure from other administration assessments that the 15-year-old conflict in Afghanistan is on a winning trajectory. More recently, there has been the release of the “Serial” podcast that takes a new look the story of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years in Taliban captivity after walking off his post in eastern Afghanistan in 2009. He has also predicted that Afghanistan would resurface as a pivotal foreign policy during the current year amid rampant insurgency by the Taliban group.
Nicholson said the Afghans still retained lead fighting responsibility against the Taliban but pledged not to allow associated forces to overrun the southern city of Kandahar. “I agree with your assessment”, Nicholson conceded, adding that the Taliban had gone on the offensive more intensely than military commanders had anticipated. The group, which also includes Afghanistan, the United States and Pakistan, is expected to meet in February in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Nicholson now heads NATO’s Allied Land Command in Turkey, which is responsible for the readiness of NATO’s land forces.
“By now, we should have learned from the precipitous withdrawal from Iraq and the disaster that ensued that wars do not end because politicians say so”, said Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican.
Nicholson said he views the terrorist safe havens inside Pakistan as a serious problem.
“Conditions on the ground in Afghanistan today clearly demand an immediate re-evaluation of scheduled American troop withdrawals”, said McCain, the committee’s chairman. “There will always be some level of violence in Afghanistan”.
Campbell has been in command in Afghanistan since August 2014.
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A blunt Pentagon report released last month said the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated in the second half of 2015, with Taliban militants staging more attacks and inflicting far more casualties on Afghan forces.
